About this episode
Today’s conversation is about financial inclusion in LatAm. In this episode, Martin meets with Luis Marinelli who is CFO and co-founder of Vana, a fintech from Guatemala in Central America providing small loans to customers that have no formal access to the banking system. According to the Global Findex data from the World Bank there are more than 1 billion unbanked adults globally. Vana is one of many Fintech’s around the world that are leveraging digital technology to help and enable unbanked communities gain access to formal financial services for the first time. In the podcast, Luis shares with us how Vana started, survived COVID lockdown and successfully established itself in Guatemala and recently launch in the Dominican Republic - Vana’s second market.
Listen to the episode
Episode Links
Website: https://www.vana.gt
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/luisrobertomarinelli
Email: luis@vana.gt
Twitter: @LuisMarinelli89

Guest Bio
Luis worked in the Financial Services Industry for more than 10 years in which he served in key positions such as Latam CFO in Grupo EZCORP and Head of Corporate Risk in BAM (Grupo Bancolombia), two of the most important lending institutions in the region.
After some time pursuing new adventures, Luis co-founded Vana, a high-growth FinTech with the mission of providing access to financial services to the unbanked and underbanked population in LATAM.
Luis holds a CPA and Acton MBA in Entrepreneurship from Universidad Francisco Marroquín and completed his Executive Master in Business Analytics from ESADE. He also holds aFinancial Modeling & Valuation Analyst certification (FMVA®) from theCorporate Finance Institute and multiple certifications on Data Science, DataAnalytics and Data Visualization.
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Martin Koderisch is a Principal in the London office. He assists payment and fintech companies of all sizes to excel at commercial execution including GTM, growth strategy & partnerships development. Martin also works with private equity clients on due diligence and post deal value creation. He offers a unique perspective based on 15+ years of experience across consulting and industry roles. Prior to joining EDC in 2015, Martin held senior operational positions developing, launching and growing payment and fintech products and services via direct sales, and strategic partnerships at start-ups and corporations including MasterCard and Citibank, and at pricing consultancy Simon-Kucher & Partners. Outside of work, Martin likes to tinker about on guitar.